Up to the age of five, Ben Walker was raised on a California ranch not unlike the famed Ponderosa, complete with a dirty main street, jailhouse, bell tower and saloon. Walker spent his early years with these empty structures serving as his playground. His family left the ranch and Walker grew up in suburban Santa Rosa and later on, Sacramento. Not concerned with schoolwork, he spent his time drawing and inventing flying machines. He watched movies about barbarians, read Spiderman comics, and drew comics about his stupid friends.

After graduating high school Ben spent his days drawing indie comic books and supported himself by making balloon animals at night. He eventually got a job as a graphic artist and found himself riding the dot.com boom. By the time the bubble burst he realized he had forgotten his true loves, drawing and painting. He enrolled at the Academy of Art in San Francisco where he received a BFA in Traditional Animation.

Now the American West serves as Walker’s playground once more. By combining comic book aesthetics with his deep love for Americana, the Old West and his own family history, Ben Walker explores the themes of adventure, action, loneliness, love, travel and innovation, always with a wink and a nod.

Emily Burns | Artist Statement

Emily’s recent work investigates the inner complexities of women through intimate glimpses of parallel environments. She is interested in the vulnerability of beauty, and the ‘eternalization’ of my subjects through the process of painting. Texture, pixilation, color and sensuality invite the viewer to acknowledge the arousing quality of the images.

Jaxon Northon | Bio

Jaxon Northon is a self-taught oil painter that resides between San Francisco, California and his hometown of Reno, Nevada. He has exhibited his work at The Chapterhouse Gallery, Record Street, The Holland Project, The Lincoln Lounge, The Amber Lounge, The Wonderland Gallery, and Modern Eden Gallery. For the last seven years Northon has made his living off of commissioned portraiture.

Nicomi Nix Turner | Bio / Artist Statement

Nicomi Nix Turner was raised on a ranch in Southern Oregon. The Pacific Northwest upbringing kindled an affinity for the botanical and entomological. Her hyper-detailed illustrations invoke a surreal understanding of the perfection in nature.

The pieces I create reflect subject matters pertaining to biological deconstructionism, nature’s legacy, alchemy, fables and counter-religious belief. In an orchestra of hyper-textured saturation, each piece is a cacophony of silent movement and erratic soliloquies. I work with a pencil in attempt to “paint” with the graphite; and with paper because of the unforgiving quality it possesses.

Monty Guy | Artist Statement / Bio

Born in 1983 in Southern California, Monty’s fascination for art began shortly thereafter. One of his earliest memories was drawing in the entry way of his parents home. Growing up, his interest in the art world grew as he painted and drew more and more. Upon completing high school he enrolled at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Monty was always drawn to the city and its influential culture, which seemingly appeared to have a flourishing artistic community. Unfortunately his time at the Academy was short lived after being expelled after the first semester. He then fled to Hawaii…

As he viewed the Academy as his, ‘dream school’ being expelled seemed a harsh dose of reality. While in Hawaii, he was in search of himself and a deeper understanding of this experience. Wandering around the islands and realizing more of who he wanted to become, he was led back to the states after several months and moved to L.A. where he began creating illustrations influenced by 1960′s Bill Graham posters for a few local clothing companies there. His immense distaste for Los Angeles lead him astray yet again. In addition to his life long dream, San Francisco still lingered in his mind. As a way to raise funds so that he could relocate to San Francisco, Monty worked for a short time in Bakersfield, California as a digital artist for a screen-printing company.

A true artist, Monty is constantly compelled to create, seeing beauty and inspiration in everything around him. He has always been very passionate about what he creates and remains attentive to every precise detail. Sometimes this may hinder his process a bit, but he feels that this maintains a dedication towards creating pieces that people appreciate. Monty continues to grow as he learns and masters his craft as an artisan.

Josh Thurman | Artist Statement

Josh Thurman grew up in the East Bay. He is currently an Illustration major at the Academy of Art University, working towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Josh has always admired the work of old Illustration masters such as Rockwell and Leyendecker and more recently has turned his eye to caricature. Two years ago he fell in love with oil painting and decided to combine two passions to create hyper realistic caricature based oil paintings. As an artist he has strived to warp reality with his caricatures and he does just that. His goal is for people to be entertained by his caricatures as well as recognize the obvious ability he possesses within the technique in which he paints. Through his unique and realistic style, Josh aims to bridge the gap between caricature based painting and contemporary art while gaining recognition and notoriety through successfully accomplishing this.